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Screen Protector: Yes or No

Does your Galaxy Nexus have a screen protector on it?

  • Yes

    Votes: 52 65.8%

  • No

    Votes: 27 34.2%
  • Total voters
    79
Droid Ninja

Droid Ninja

Well-Known Member
I was reading this thread in which someone brought up a good point. With screen technology on today's phones, are screen protectors even needed anymore?

With the Galaxy Nexus you can see numerous torture/scratch tests on youtube where keys and knives can't seem to scratch the screen.

So my question to you all is very simple.

Do you have a screen protector on your Nexus?
 
This is by no means a new question. Its been asked numerous times.

While glass tech has improved, cell phones are still far from impervious to damage. So screen protectors still provide some level of protection from damage.

That being said, I don't have a screen protector or case. I just don't feel I need either. Never had a problem with any of my previous smart phones.
 
I put one of the verizon ones on it for now...mainly until I know for sure I'm keeping it. I don't want a scratch keeping me from returning it.

I never had one on my X for two years. The edges of the phone were all chipped and dented from dropping it and beating it up, but the screen was always fine.

It's more of a panic to protect anything possible from happening to a new phone. Once I'm a little more relaxed with it, the protection will probably come off. Then once I get that first knick on the frame, I give up and what happens happens and it's a much more enjoyable experience than worrying and babying it.
 
Droid Ninja said:
I was reading this thread in which someone brought up a good point. With screen technology on today's phones, are screen protectors even needed anymore?

With the Galaxy Nexus you can see numerous torture/scratch tests on youtube where keys and knives can't seem to scratch the screen.

So my question to you all is very simple.

Do you have a screen protector on your Nexus?
Click to expand...

Yes. Please read those NUMEROUS threads though. Those tests are laughable at best because the materials used to try to scratch the screen with are all quite a bit softer than the screen material. If they tried it with a brick (or even a bunch of dust/sand on a cloth) to simulate the presence of dust/sand that PROBABLY will (eventually it will) be trapped against the lining of your pocket, and the pressure against the screen and movement across it as the phone is place in and removed from the pocket- then I'll be impressed with the test. It is only a matter of time before one has to remove the phone from (or put it away in) a pocket that is even just a little too tight, or for whatever reason a phone falls and/or scraps across the sidewalk/curb/etc. Going SP-less is a numbers game, and eventually (whether during your ownership of the phone or beyond is your luck, not guarantee) the number will land. That 1:100 (or whatever statistic) always has to be someone, and remember that it is a long-term approximation, there can be short bursts of high frequency...
 
I absolutely despise screen protectors, but I got a couple scratchs on my GN so now I use a screen protector. I think it's the oleophobic layer over the glass that is getting scratched and not the actual glass.
 
I do not like them, but I'm careful with my phone and know what not to do with it. I do think they are incredibly useful for some users, like my sister who throws her phone around like it's a piece of trash :p in her purse with keys and loose change!
 
EraserXIV said:
I think it's the oleophobic layer over the glass that is getting scratched and not the actual glass.
Click to expand...

I've been pondering this too, but I can't find enough detail about it to determine 1.) if it actually is the majority of the problems, and 2.) if so, shouldn't those be fixable (theoretically) be re-application & buffing?

The evidence for it is:

  • The size/shape/pattern of many of the scratches illustrated here and elsewhere do not match the general/expected pattern of scratching by sand grains/dust
  • it would seem logical that the coating is softer than the glass (but I can't verify this, so it could be a big assumption), but this may be moot depending upon the material nature of the coating- if colloidal (for example), hardness does not matter, only force and displacement would.
  • Based off of reports accompanying many of the scratch posts, many seem to be linking it to items much softer than glass (but the assumption must have seemed logical to them for a reason- known proximity to the device perhaps?)

The evidence against (or rather evidence too steeped in unknowns to really consider at this point):

  • All of the scratches are noticeable because of the way they reflect/refract light differently, logic would dictate that the coating is sufficiently thin so as to not impair the properties of the glass underneath (i.e. is clear), and so a cut or scratch that would result in a build up of the coating material at the edge of the furrow would still be only at most half-again the amount normally present at that point and probably not enough to noticeably affect the reflection/refraction like a similar cut into glass would.
  • If the coating were to be a colloidal, would it not repair any scratches by rubbing/redistributing the displaced mass back into place?
  • Why would the SGP oleophobic screen protector with (presumably) the same coating material not scratch equally as much?

This is a tough point to address inductively (short of running tests by scratching coated and non-coated screens), but logically I will go out on a limb and deduce that it is not the coating that is scratching. I think the screen protector point is (as of my knowledge/evidence thus far) too hard to combat. Some oleophobic screen protectors with similar scratches would maybe change my mind, but I don't think we'll see it.
 
Just as a follow-up on the whole oleophobic coating point, 3M's version has a refractive index about the same as water (so other than air, about as clear as we can get) but of less resistance to light than fused-silica glass. Given that it seems to be a flouropolymer dissolved in a mystery liquid, my assumption of a colloidal material seems appropriate, and so again, I am doubting that it is the coating that is scratching (or at least is producing what we are seeing as scratches)...

Source:
http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/mediaw...zHvTSevTSeSSSSSS--&fn=prodinfo_nvcegc1720.pdf
 
Never liked the feel of screen protectors. It is like ruining your screen to save your screen.

Phones are meant to be replaced in two years, so I expect some wear and tear. If my phone gets scratched, it gets scratched. I almost prefer to have a few small scratches, so I will stop worrying about it all the time.
 
ZachMob said:
Never liked the feel of screen protectors. It is like ruining your screen to save your screen.

Phones are meant to be replaced in two years, so I expect some wear and tear. If my phone gets scratched, it gets scratched. I almost prefer to have a few small scratches, so I will stop worrying about it all the time.
Click to expand...

Thats how I feel but I like to keep my things looking new all the time.
 
Hate the feel of screen protectors. Unfortunately, after one week of very careful use, which phone only in my pocket, I had several scratches on my screen.

So I put a screen protector on so that I cannot see the scratches, and thus can suspend disbelief and think I have a brand new phone.

It was that or be depressed for two years.
 
I agree with edge on the XO Skins. They are superb and you can't tell its there. Best of both worlds.

And s.m.knipe, you said a bunch big words strung together into intelligent sounding sentences, so whatever you said, I agree with it.
 
I think I was the originator of the point, thanks for looking me up.

Let me add that GN has curved screen, this gives an improved intrinsic protection, but put the horizontal hedges at risk. (there's a picture of unlucky guy with a smashed screen after a drop)

I hated cases as well, but since the GN is so thin the Mumbi case I got really makes a perfect fit, and adds a 1 mm. bezel to protect the screen too.
 
Technically, my screen doesn't have a protector on it right now because it had some small particles under it so I removed it and can't replace it until I get home from work.

But its definitely going to have one. Today I've realized that 1) there's a lot of lint in my pocket and 2) the GN screen is a lint magnet.

Not worried too much about scratches since I'm pretty careful but yeah, the lint/dust is bothering me.
 
I feel like a screen protector is a must if you plan on having the device for a long time... in/out of pockets, even with lots of care, eventually there will be at least micro abrasions, in all probability... I went protectorless on my BB storm, and the screen is still is really good shape, the phone has some dings, but there are a few micro scratches/abrasions that are hardly noticeable, but still want to try and avoid even that.

It would be nice to have a star trek sheild that you can turn on/off, so you can have it off for watching video but automatically turn on afterward. :p
 
droid 1: carried in pocket with change/keys/lighter for 10 months, no screen protector - 0 scratches, big or small.

thunderbolt: carried in pocket with change/keys/lighter for 2 months, no screen protector - COVERED in fine scratches. applied a screen protector to hide them.

GNex - screen protector from day 1, don't want this thing ending up like my thunderbolt.

i will never understand how that OG droid screen took such a beating. both it, and the thunderbolt, are listed as having gorilla glass, but carrying them in identical circumstances yielded surprisingly different results. this seems to be echoed by many other D1 owners when switching to a new device as well. :confused:
 
One word: Sand.

That being said, I got my Otterbox Defender before I even got the phone and it was in there since day 1. However, I got tired of the oil slick from it and bought a 3 pack of protectors from Verizon. At some point (probably once I get the OB Commuter) I'm going to get a better protector, one that fits the entire screen and doesn't make the whole screen look like a rainbow.
Screen protector is a must IMHO.
 
hlsilver said:
One word: Sand.

That being said, I got my Otterbox Defender before I even got the phone and it was in there since day 1. However, I got tired of the oil slick from it and bought a 3 pack of protectors from Verizon. At some point (probably once I get the OB Commuter) I'm going to get a better protector, one that fits the entire screen and doesn't make the whole screen look like a rainbow.
Screen protector is a must IMHO.
Click to expand...

I also have the Otterbox Defender, and if you have a separate screen protector, the built in one is pretty easy to remove, if that's your only reason for getting the Commuter case (unless you returned the Defender one for a refund).

For every day use though, I find the OB Defender too bulky and use a TPU gel case.
 
umataro42 said:
I also have the Otterbox Defender, and if you have a separate screen protector, the built in one is pretty easy to remove, if that's your only reason for getting the Commuter case (unless you returned the Defender one for a refund).

For every day use though, I find the OB Defender too bulky and use a TPU gel case.
Click to expand...

I've thought about removing it but I figure it's fine the way it is. I actually only paid $1.49 for the Defender as I bought a LivingSocial deal for $50 worth of accessories from Verizon and my sister ended up paying for the $25 that the deal cost for Christmas.

I figure it's worth having the Defender for rough situations, like yesterday during a torrential downpour, and use either the TPU or Commuter for daily use, depending on how bulky the commuter is.
 
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